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Climate Disruption Dispatches, With Dahr Jamail
By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Climate Change Series Dahr Jamail, a Truthout staff reporter, is the author of The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, (Haymarket Books, 2009), and Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, (Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from Iraq for more than a year, as well as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last ten years, and has won the Martha Gellhorn Award for Investigative Journalism, among other awards. His fourth book, The Mass Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible, co-written with William Rivers Pitt, is available now on Amazon. He lives and works in Washington State. Premise The reality of Anthropogenic Climate Disruption (ACD) continues to outstrip our ability to model worst-case scenarios, as it is happening so much faster than was ever anticipated. Sixty-three percent of all human-generated carbon emissions have been produced in the last 25 years, but science shows us that there is a 40-year time lag between global emissions (our actions) and climate impacts (the consequences). Hence, we haven't even begun to experience the worst of our emissions, and won't, until at least 2054. Background Since the industrial revolution began, the human species has increased the average global temperature by .85 degrees Celsius. In December 2010, the UN Environment Program predicted up to a 5 degrees Celsius increase by 2050. This is a shocking piece of information, because a 3.5 degrees Celsius increase would render the planet uninhabitable for humans due to collapsing the food chain at the level of oceanic plankton and triggering temperature extremes that would severely limit terrestrial vegetation, and hence, our ability to feed ourselves. And even higher temperature increases have been predicted. The four life-giving aspects of the planet: Earth, Water, Air and Fire, are under assault from the ecocide that "industrial civilization" has wrought upon the globe, coming in the forms of ACD and the myriad other methods of polluting the planet. The Boiling Point Humans have never lived on a planet with temperatures 3.5 degrees Celsius above baseline, and many scientists believe it would be impossible to do so. An increasing number of climate change scientists now fear that our situation is already so serious, and so many self-reinforcing feedback loops are already in play, that we are in the process of causing our own extinction. Worse yet, some are convinced that it could happen far more quickly than generally believed possible - even in the course of just the next few decades. Approximately 55 million years ago, a 5-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures occurred in only 13 years, and a scientific report published last year revealed that in the near-term, Earth's climate will change 10 times faster than at any other moment in the last 65 million years. Science already shows that we are currently experiencing change 200 to 300 times faster than any of the previous major extinction events. Have we already reached a point where Earth is in hospice? If so, we as a species may very well already be teetering on the threshold of our very extinction. Meet Truthout Most media will not report on the grave nature of our situation. But Truthout will. In light of the severity of this crisis, Truthout is showing its commitment to honest reporting of the most important story of our time by launching Dahr Jamail's monthly Climate Disruption Dispatches, to chronicle ongoing evidence and impacts of ACD as they have manifested around the globe for the previous 30 days. We hope that these dispatches will become a useful resource for other journalists, scientists and readers who wish to stay abreast of the latest ACD developments. Consider this a monthly inventory of each month's new evidence of what the Western mode of living and generating financial profits is costing Earth. Perhaps future generations will look upon this as a log of what we witnessed being done to the planet. References As Casualties Mount, Scientists Say Global Warming Has Been "Hugely Underestimated" Monday, 20 October 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report UN Report: Human-Caused Climate Disruption Is "Severe, Pervasive, Irreversible" Monday, 22 September 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report "Peak Water," Methane Blowholes and Ice-Free Arctic Cruises: The Climate Crisis Deepens Monday, 18 August 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report The Brink of Mass Extinction Monday, 21 July 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis Atmospheric CO2 Crosses "Ominous Threshold" Monday, 16 June 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis "Devastating" Impacts of Climate Change Increasing Tuesday, 13 May 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis Evidence of Acceleration on All Fronts of Anthropogenic Climate Disruption Thursday, 10 April 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis NASA Climate Predictions Show Serious Threat to Humanity Monday, 24 March 2014 By Jessica Desvarieux, The Real News Network | Video Interview Reporting on a World of Environmental Catastrophes - All in Just One Month Monday, 17 March 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis The March of Anthropogenic Climate Disruption Monday, 24 February 2014 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis Category:Climate Change